Bill Gates Is Upbeat on Climate, Capitalism, and Even PoliticsFeedzy

Still, one suggestion you make in your book is for people worried about climate to serve in government. What about you, since so many of your suggestions really depend on governments to create a supply of climate innovations and spur the demand for them at premium prices.

Absolutely. But I’m only expert in a limited number of things. It’s weird that climate change got added to that list because my views on global health and education used up whatever government work that I like to do. But in terms of the future of all our work in developing countries, this one really kind of trumps the health improvement that we’ve made, and things like better seeds to farmers. And it’s complex enough that you kind of have to have a systems thinker to say, OK, what are the right metrics and how do you accelerate the innovation, which normally you would just let proceed at its own pace without any deadline, like we have here.

Some people charge that the opposition to addressing the problem comes not from ignorance but lobbying and misinformation from the fossil fuel industries. In other words, capitalism itself is the problem. I don’t know if you saw this article about your book in the London Review of Books, but let me read you the conclusion: “The system that allowed Gates to amass his immense wealth is also the system that has led to and has so far proved incapable of meeting the challenges presented by the climate crisis.”

The human condition today is better than 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 200 years ago. Capitalism should get some credit for that. I’d rather be a woman today, I’d rather be a gay person today, I’d rather get cancer today. Try and run this pandemic 10 years ago, before the internet and before we knew how to make modern new vaccines. If people think that 100 years ago is better than today, then they can say what a huge error we made with this capitalism thing.

It’s interesting that the people who you would think would be avid supporters of dealing with the climate crisis are now really excited about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Which climate-wise seems to be a step backward, because it’s such a huge energy consumer.

My criticisms of Bitcoin are not really centered on its ridiculous use of electricity. It’s more centered on my belief in attributed reversible duplicable local currency digital exchange, like what the foundation has been funding in India, Kenya, and many other places. I believe in digital currency for low transaction costs, and we’ve done more to lower the cost of remittances than anyone. In Kenya today, drive around, you’ll see the signs everywhere. Bitcoin hasn’t done that, because you can’t cash it out. These Bitcoin guys have done nothing—maybe on kidnapping fees or some drug transaction costs.

I want to ask you about geoengineering, which you mention briefly in the book. You say you’ve been funding some studies about this. You say this approach, which messes with the climate itself, is a break-the-glass measure taken when it’s too late to otherwise stop catastrophic consequences. When would that moment come, and what would we do?

Right now the big debate is, should they be allowed to even do tiny little experiments or shouldn’t we even go near it. It’s very controversial. I remember when The Inconvenient Truth came out, and I said after the screening, “Gore, hey, what about geoengineering?” He just went like this [Gates makes the sign of a cross that wards off vampires], meaning we shouldn’t even talk about it. I didn’t want in the book to push it, but I thought if I didn’t even mention it, that would also be strange, like I’m trying to hide it like it’s some secret plan. It’s a little bit tricky because we’re not very good at modeling weather, and it’ll be a huge political decision. It won’t be a decision made by me. If we’re responsible and making progress on climate change the way we should, we won’t ever be tempted to use it.

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